A Walk in the Ochils

November walk from Tillicoultry
I hadn’t been out on a hill walk for a couple of months- far too long –so when Toni suggested a Sunday walk I immediately said yes. It looked like it would be just me and Toni until Roser also came at the last minute.

We met in our usual place at the Macrobert café on the uni campus and spent too long chatting with Sonia meaning we had to opt for a more local short walk in order to be able to finish it before dark. It’s now dusk around 3.30pm!

Great texture of the rocks on the hill

Me & Roser at the summit in the clouds-it wasn't raining but very windy. Toni assured us that on a clear day you can see the Cairngorms and the West Highlands

We drove a few miles to nearby Tillicoultry where we started our walk in Mill Glen – a popular local Sunday walk. It was very steep in parts and hard going on the ascent but peaks at only 671 metres. As we got nearer the summit we were walking in the clouds – they look just like fog and I can’t really tell the difference. We briefly stopped for tea and a snack at the summit in the howling wind before heading back down out of the clouds to admire the views across the Forth valley.

I love the contrasting colours of the bracken and grey sky

Roser & Toni on the descent down Ben Cleuch (sounds like 'clook')

I saw the recently disused Tillicoultry quarry on the way down – a large hole in the side of one of the hills and a gorse bush in very early flower (they usually flower around February time) in the sheltered glen.

We made it in 3 ½ hours and arrived back at our car to find 2 fellow walkers had lost their car keys and were trying to break back into their own car! They still hadn’t managed by the time we had removed our muddy boots and left.